An all-time great basketball player and longtime Clemson Athletics staff member, the late Barbara Kennedy-Dixon left an indelible mark on her beloved alma mater and its people
For a window into just how phenomenal Barbara Kennedy-Dixon ’85, M ’92 was on the basketball court, look no further than the Clemson Women’s Basketball record book. A name search for the former star forward yields more than 150 results.
Her top-line career accomplishments merely scratch the surface. Kennedy-Dixon, who played from 1978 to 1982, still holds program records for points scored (3,113), scoring average per game (24.5), rebounds (1,252) and field goals made (1,349). Those 3,113 career points — a mark set before the introduction of the three-point line — also make her the all-time leading scorer in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
“When Barbara Kennedy passed away (in July 2018) after battling cancer off and on for many years, we lost one of the great icons in the history of Clemson Athletics,” longtime sports information director Tim Bourret wrote in a memorial article.
Kennedy-Dixon was instrumental in the early successes of the Clemson Women’s Basketball program. Former teammate Mary Anne Cubelic-Grant ’83, M ’84 fondly recalls the 1980–1981 team that defeated several top-ranked opponents, including No. 2 Old Dominion.
“Nobody kind of put us up there with all of them, and … we beat them all,” Cubelic-Grant says. “But if you asked us, we could play with anybody, and I think we proved it. … We were all so excited and so proud.”
Kennedy-Dixon made women’s college basketball history in 1982, scoring the first points in the inaugural game of the Women’s NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament.
After a brief stint playing professionally in Italy, she returned to her alma mater in 1987 to begin a decades-long career with Clemson Athletics. Kennedy-Dixon first served as a women’s assistant basketball coach before moving into roles that spanned student development, academic advising and services, and compliance until her retirement in 2017.
“I can’t exaggerate enough how much Clemson meant to Barbara as well as what Barbara meant to Clemson,” says her husband, Marvin Dixon. “You know, it’s easy to go to work when you like what you’re doing. … True story: I’d asked her to even just have a bed set up (in her office) just to stay there.”
“She loved Clemson that much, and it showed not only when she was playing but, more importantly, when she was an ambassador for the University.”
Marvin Dixon
Former Clemson Women’s Basketball players Nikki Blassingame-West ’00 and Erin Batth ’01 met Kennedy-Dixon when she was an academic advisor for student-athletes. Today, both are women’s college basketball coaches. They credit Kennedy-Dixon’s kindness, patience and gentle but firm honesty as influencing their leadership styles.
“What I know I’ve learned from her is being a compassionate person and trying to listen to the players first before I start to speak,” says Blassingame-West, associate head coach at North Carolina State University. “Let them express how they feel, whether it’s good, bad … because she (Barbara) was always there to listen regardless of what it was.”
“She would always listen, but she would never just react,” says Batth, head coach at Providence College. “(When she was) giving me the real deal, making me better — it came out of love. So that’s how I coach. … I’m tough, but the only reason I can do it is because my team knows I love them, and that’s how she was with us.”
Stephanie Ellison-Johnson ’98, M ’01 found a mentor in Kennedy-Dixon throughout her career, first as a Clemson Athletics graduate assistant in compliance and then when she joined the department full time in 2003. As senior woman administrator from 2005 to 2014, Kennedy-Dixon told Ellison-Johnson that she could one day do her job. It was a suggestion that Ellison-Johnson initially dismissed, but Kennedy-Dixon saw her long-term potential. Today, Ellison-Johnson is the executive senior associate athletic director for sports administration and senior woman administrator.
“I think of all the people who have come through Clemson Athletics in my time here, and they all have Barbara stories,” Ellison-Johnson says, “whether it was her favorite saying — ‘What you do in the dark is going to come to light’ — or her singing. She had a beautiful voice. … It’s just that authenticity, how genuine she was, how caring she was, but at the end of the day, how much of an impact she made on many people’s lives and the department and the institution.”
“She was a rock star,” Blassingame-West says. “If she was still around to this day — oh, gosh, it would be a blessing for all those student-athletes at Clemson.”
